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American actor who became a preeminent motion picture “tough guy” and was a top box office attraction during the 1940s and ’50s. In his performances he projected the image of a worldly wise, individualistic adventurer with a touch of idealism hidden beneath a hardened exterior. Offscreen he gave the carefully crafted appearance of being a cynical loner,...

American actress who, portrayed strong but often unsavoury women in most of her more than 70 films and was known as the “queen of the B’s”—a title she wore proudly—because of the many B films, including Cat Women of the Moon (1954) and Swamp Women (1955), in which she appeared. She was, however, best remembered for her first film as star, The Narrow...

American popular singer widely known as the “King of Rock and Roll” and one of rock music’s dominant performers from the mid-1950s until his death. Presley grew up dirt-poor in Tupelo, moved to Memphis as a teenager, and, with his family, was off welfare only a few weeks when producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records, a local blues label, responded to his...